The concept of a Tipping Point is too much in vogue these days for me to take seriously, but it does feel like my company is close to one.

For those who don't keep current on the latest memes, a tipping point is when a trend/business/technology/fad reaches critical mass and starts growing of its own accord. Come to think of it, we used to call this "critical mass."

Anyway, some interesting things have been happening the past few months:

* Other companies have been approaching us asking to partner, rather than us approaching them.

* I've been complemented on the effectiveness of our marketing efforts by several different clients and prospective clients.

* Our revenue has been growing exponentially, not just on a year-to-year basis, but even quarter-to-quarter, and almost month-to-month. (Of course, when you start at almost zero, exponential growth is easy.)

* Initial interest in our new high-end service for our largest customers has been much more than we expected. Prospects which we had a hard time moving forward on our regular service are suddenly asking about the high-end service.

* The month of May will close with almost as much sales as all of 2003 (a significant fraction of this being sales of prepaid services--always good when your customers pay you ahead of time). There is even an outside chance we could have a cash-flow positive month in the not-too-distant future.

Keep in mind that the past two years have been much harder (and more expensive) than I ever thought possible. I have grown very suspicious of early optimism. Nevertheless, business does seem to be ticking up for us, and sales are getting easier.

Now we just have to focus on getting the income to stay consistently above the outgo.